By Peninsula Daily News staff
and The Associated Press
THIS WEEK’S BUSINESS meetings on the North Olympic Peninsula (all of these meetings are open to the public):
Port Angeles Regional Chamber of Commerce — Weekly luncheon meetings are held Mondays at noon in the second-floor meeting room of the Red Lion Hotel, 221 N. Lincoln St.
Today’s (Monday, July 1) speaker will be departing city Public Works Director Glenn Cutler. He will outline city projects that are under way as well as future projects. Cutler is retiring from his post later this summer.
Luncheon tickets are $15 and can be purchased from the meeting room cashier. There is a $3 cover charge for those not having lunch; the charge includes a beverage.
Jefferson County Chamber of Commerce — Weekly luncheon meetings are held Mondays at noon at the Port Townsend Elks Lodge, 555 Otto St.
Today’s (Monday, July 1) speaker is Cmdr. Mike Yesunas. He has been Naval Magazine Indian Island commanding officer since March 28.
Lunch at $8 will be catered by Subway, and Monday’s meeting sponsor will be Marrowstone Vineyard.
Forks Chamber of Commerce — The chamber’s Wednesday luncheon meetings are on hiatus for the summer and will resume in September.
Port Angeles Business Association — Breakfast meetings are Tuesdays at 7:30 a.m. at Joshua’s Restaurant, 113 DelGuzzi Drive, Port Angeles.
This Tuesday’s speaker will be Port Angeles Fire Chief Ken Dubuc. He will discuss Fourth of July fireworks and summer season challenges faced by firefighters.
There is a $2.16 minimum charge by Joshua’s for those who do not order breakfast.
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College nursing professor given sabbatical leave
PORT ANGELES — Peninsula College nursing professor Bonnie Rathod has been awarded a sabbatical leave for the 2013-2014 academic year.
Rathod plans to study and participate in global and cross-cultural nursing experiences during the school year, both as a nursing instructor and a nurse in the field, working in underserved communities in the United States and abroad.
Some of the activities she plans to participate in include promoting service learning experiences in local and regional underserved community health settings, such as Volunteers in Medicine of the Olympics, Pike Place Free Clinic and Indian Health Service settings, as well as overseas; teaching nursing education with local nursing faculty in Cambodia and other regions of Southeast Asia through Health Volunteers Overseas; and volunteering with Project Hope in the Caribbean or Central America.
She also plans to collaborate with nursing colleagues in Southeast Asia and China to promote nursing student/faculty exchanges, conduct scholarly research on traditional medicine and health beliefs while volunteering overseas and participate in a medical Spanish-immersion program.
When Rathod returns to the classroom in the fall of 2014, she said, she plans to incorporate her sabbatical experiences into her teaching.
“Cultural diversity and health care disparities will become a curricular thread in my units,” she said.
Stoves for vouchers
PORT ANGELES — Spa Shop/Pellet Heat Co. has partnered with Jøtul North America to implement a Woodstove Changeout Program in an effort to improve air quality.
Consumers can trade in their current non-EPA-certified stoves in exchange for a voucher valued at up to $300 toward any current Jøtul product through Sept. 16.
For all vouchers that are redeemed at Spa Shop/Pellet Heat Co., Jøtul will make a donation to the American Lung Association.
Inspired by federally led change-out programs around the U.S., Jøtul NA is the first manufacturer to implement its own change-out program.
EPA-certified wood stoves emit approximately 70 percent less pollution than older conventional stoves and burn up to a third less wood than older models.
Spa Shop/Pellet Heat Co. is located at 230 E. First St., Suite C.
For more information, phone Mike DeRousie at 360-457-4406 or email miked@spashop.com.
PA employer workshop set for July 11
PORT ANGELES — The state Department of Labor & Industries is offering a workshop Thursday, July 11, to help new employers.
The workshop will be held at the Labor & Industries office, 1605 E. Front St., Suite C, from
8 a.m. to noon.
The free workshop is for all business owners and managers who don’t have a full understanding of employer rights and responsibilities relative to the Department of Labor & Industries or of the services and resources L&I provides.
Participants will learn about workers’ compensation, quarterly reporting, critical claims management strategies, workplace safety and health requirements, wage and hour laws, and contractor registration rules.
This workshop also covers payroll, overtime, meal and break requirements, keeping records and importance of paying for workers’ compensation and the importance to a business’ bottom line of managing claims.
Other topics include workplace safety and health requirements and contractor registration rules.
Last minute walk-ins are welcome, but RSVPs are encouraged by July 8.
For more information, phone Keith Johnson at 253-596-3834 or visit http://tinyurl.com/
poafgoe.
Concrete coatings
SEQUIM — Gerald Bergren has started Revived Hard Surfaces, which provides protective concrete coatings for garages, porches, driveways and patios.
He can restore stained concrete, eliminating the need for repouring.
Bergren is licensed and bonded by the state of Washington and insured.
For more information, phone 360-683-8231.
PDN speakers
PORT ANGELES — Representatives of the Peninsula Daily News are available to speak to clubs, organizations and at other gatherings across the North Olympic Peninsula.
How the newspaper operates in print and on the Internet, how letters to the editor are handled, advertising and subscriber issues, the do’s and don’ts of submitting a news item — PDN speakers are happy to address these and other issues.
To arrange to have a speaker address a gathering, phone John Brewer, PDN publisher and editor, at 360-417-3500 or email him at john.brewer@peninsuladailynews.com.
Logging rules
GRANTS PASS, Ore. — A federal judge has ordered the U.S. Bureau of Land Management to sell more timber in southern Oregon, and vacated a system federal scientists use to avoid harming the northern spotted owl.
The ruling out of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia came in a case filed by the timber industry against the Department of Interior.
Judge Richard J. Leon ruled last week that BLM has failed to consistently offer as much timber as called for in its 1995 resource management plans for the Medford and Roseburg districts since 2004.
And he found that a computer model used by government agencies to estimate spotted owl numbers in timber sale areas was adopted without input from the public, as required by the Administrative Procedures Act.
He prohibited government agencies from using the protocol until it goes through a public comment process.
The ruling did not address whether timber sales that have been sold based on the invalidated owl estimation protocol, but not yet cut, were still valid.
That portion of the ruling leaves the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service without a scientifically valid method of estimating whether spotted owls, a threatened species, can survive the harm from losing a portion of their forest habitat to logging, said Andy Stahl, director of the Forest Service Employees for Environmental Ethics, a conservation group.
An earlier method was struck down in an earlier court ruling.